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Introduction

A more visual illustration of the meteorite dial

Recently we have had the chance to get up close with some of luxury Swiss watchmaker Parmigiani's 2016 new releases and boy, are they something to desire. Amongst the several novelties from the Fleurier-based company we have been fortunate enough to get our hands on, one had managed to seize our attention from the beginning to the end of the viewing: a watch that simply checks all the right boxes. To be honest, I was thrilled when I finally got to gently wrap it around my wrist and have the above picture taken. Why? Because its dial is made of meteorite. Yes, you read that right, meteorite. Basically rocks from outer space. A forming star somewhere in the galaxy could have given rise to the very piece of meteorite that's sitting on my wrist now (ok, I'm making things up here, but you get the meaning about its uniqueness). So we were rightfully STARstruck when we finally got to examine this timepiece in detail.

In this episode of On the Wrist, we give you our review of the truly outstanding Parmigiani Tonda 1950 Meteorite in Rose Gold. Let's check it out! ​

In case you don't know, this very week is the biggest week in a year for to the global watch community because THE biggest watch exhibition, the Baselworld, is taking place in Basel, Switzerland (of course) at this very moment. What happens in Baselworld you ask? Simple. Almost ALL of the watch brands (from traditional powerhouses like Rolex and Patek to relatively niche watchmakers) around the world will come together and reveal their 2016 new releases and absolutely anybody in the watch business, the magazine editors, the buyers, the professional photographers, for instance, would be keeping a close eye on the new goodies delivered by the best names in the business.

And over the past few days or so, there are 3 new releases that have captured Lengbeau's heart in particular (so far) and it's only a right to do to share our quick view on them with you. To learn more about Baselworld 2016, feel free to go here.

Introduction

Let's face it. Nowadays people don't purchase mechanicals watches for their accuracyanymore. While it is high unlikely a well-looked-after mechanical watch would give rise to a timekeeping error large enough to create annoyance in real life scenarios, that a mechanical watch should be able to tell time perfectly simply isn't a key consideration here. By extension, the need to read the time off the face of a timepiece immediately - unless you're a fighter jet pilot - doesn't seem to take top priority for general consumers these days. And for better or worse, SevenFriday, a Swiss brand founded in 2012, has since its inception established a philosophy of watchmaking that aims to inject a little bit of fun (and comes with it, a level of complexity) into the mechanism by which its products tell time. Succeeding the massively popular and ultra-stylish P-Series and M-Series lines was its V-Series references (including the 2 watches we are going to review here) which broke into the scene in the later half of 2015, bringing with them the bold and unorthodox aesthetics that has so ever strongly defined the brand. And that, would mean SevenFriday has done it again by making people scratch their heads trying to figure out exactly how to even USE them.

SevenFriday P Series

SevenFriday M Series

But fear not. In our recent encounter with the V1/01 and V3/01 (special courtesy to Chronos who has provided the watches for our review purpose), we have done our fair share of head-scratching so you don't need to do yours. And this, is your complete breakdown of the SevenFriday V1/01 and V3/01 (black version). Let's check it out!

Introduction

We would make this assumption before getting into the details of the subject of this episode of "On the Wrist": absolutely ANY watch collector, young or mature, budget-conscious or rich, amateurish or professional, would develop a liking towards military pilot watches at some point of their watch collection journey. I mean, why not? A military pilot watch is rugged, no-frill, extremely utilitarian with its history dated back to WWII days as an essential piece of equipment issued to air forces around the world. To put it simply, the military pilot watch is the epitome of "tool watch" and is almost guaranteed to never go out of fashion.

Despite lacking a textbook definition, military pilot watches share a number of common traits. First and foremost, since they are created for pilots who can usually only afford to spend seconds glancing at their watches to tell time as they are busy maneuvering their planes, a pilot watch has to be extremely legible, which is achieved by an open dial with very little or no decoration. Some of the pilot watch dials are so minimal they do away the name of the watchmaker altogether, in order to maximise legibility. Second, since pilot watches are expected to be worn over the pilot jackets, they are designed to come in a larger case size, with 50mm not an uncommon dimension for pilot watches used in actual combat situations, to further enhance readability. Last but not least, the crown of a pilot watch is enlarged to ensure it can be easily operated by the pilot even with his gloves on. Back then, a pilot watch is a key piece of tool to combatants around the world and their survival depended on the reliability and accuracy of it. It could make all the differences between accurately landing your plane at a target enemy base or failing to do so miscalculating the flight time elapsed.

A WWII pilot seen wearing his pilot watch.

Luckily with the World War far behind us, pilot watches these days are seldom put to the test of the battlefield. What was once a critical tool in wars has now become a design style, carrying over its easily identifiable characteristics into the civilian world, capturing the hearts of watch collectors for generations. And today, we are reviewing what we believe could be the best value pilot watches we have handled for a while thanks to the introduction of our friends over at Chronos. Two watches that remain true to their historic root while incorporating modern construction and materials, offered at a more than reasonable price: the Ventus C-01 and C-01 Type B, available in brass/ carbon fiber cases.

A newly released 2016 novelty from German watchmaker A.Lange & Sohne: The Saxonia Moonphase. Retailing for HKD250,000.

This is a topic I've wanted to write about for a long time, and not without good reasons.

I recall the time around 3-4 years ago when I first begun to entertain the idea of owning a "serious" watch (which, at that point of time, basically means a Rolex, given how little I knew about the world of Haute Horlogerie back then, thinking to myself Rolex is perhaps the most expensive watch brand out there), I was taken aback by the "insane" price tag. I mean, I know owning a Rolex is a pretty cool thing and all that but really? HKD40,000 for a 34mm Rolex Air-King? Why on earth would somebody squander that much money to buy a piece of steel that honestly, doesn't even do its job to tell time as effectively as its quartz counterparts (for those of you who still think all watches are powered by batteries, check out this article we published a while ago)? I was baffled. And I'm sure many of you would have wondered to yourself the very same question I had, whenever you check out the unreal price tags of any luxury watch inside a display window: just exactly why are luxury, mechanical watches so damn expensive?

Being in the watch world long enough and I can guarantee you that you will grow accustomed to the almost astronomical retail prices of many of the best Swiss/ German mechanical watches. A HKD90,000 Rolex Daytona would soon feel more like an entry level "nice" watch. A HKD150,000 Patek Philippe Calatrava? That's like the minimum you have to pay to own a piece of Patek and have a taste of luxury watchmaking. A HKD250,000 A.Lange & Sohne Saxonia Moonphase? Alright, now things are becoming a bit more serious. But that's nowhere close to the most expensive wristwatch ever, which was sold for a jaw-dropping HKD56,000,000.

Doesn't it feel unreal at times that a small piece of timepiece could cost more than, say, a brand new BMW? Or even an apartment? How do we make sense of all these and not get carried away by the glam and hype of this hyper lux watch world that we live in? Today we're here to explain why luxury watches are worth that much and to put things into perspective.